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Profile of Entrepreneurial Leadership:
Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care
| by DELTARx |
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 Tom Halterman, CEO & Patty Kumbera, COO
Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care
Des Moines, Iowa
Medication Therapy Management (MTM) is the buzz of the year in the pharmacy community. Medicare Part D opened the door to these services when the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 was passed. However, a group of entrepreneurial Iowa pharmacists saw this trend coming long ago. While many pharmacists are still wondering what MTM can mean for them, one group of pharmacists is far ahead of the curve.
Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care is a Medication Therapy Management Firm owned and managed by pharmacists. In 1999 a pioneering group of Iowa pharmacists had a dream to provide quality patient care services and be recognized for those services by the health care marketplace. The innovation they set forth to achieve required change in the health care industry. In order to continue to provide quality patient care services, or pharmaceutical care, a system of documentation and compensation had to be developed. The innovation of Outcomes was not teaching pharmacists to provide care to patients; the innovation was making it a sustainable model.
Tom Halterman and Patty Kumbera are the CEO and COO of Outcomes, respectively. Tom is a 1989 graduate of the University of Iowa with a Bachelors of Science in Pharmacy. Patty is a 1989 graduate of Drake University with a Bachelors of Science in Pharmacy. They met in the world of retail pharmacy as they were each employed by a major national chain pharmacy. Throughout their career paths their projects and views coincided. Most notably when Tom was the director for a network of care-based pharmacies and Patty was coordinating a study about the value of pharmacist interventions. The study proved the value of the community pharmacist in the health care team and they set out with a handful of investors to bring care-based pharmacy services to the health care market in 1999. Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care is now leading the nation in medication therapy management services.
As with all entrepreneurial ventures there was perseverance. While the goal of Outcomes was quality patient care, a seemingly valuable addition to the health care system, there were challenges. Some thought pharmacists already provided these services and since they had not paid for them before, why should they pay now? Others felt that this was overstepping the role of the pharmacist and these services should be left to other health care team members. Through the years Outcomes pharmacists and the investors overcame the obstacles and continued to pursue standardization of quality patient services, documentation and compensation.
With clients across the nation, Outcomes is the first and largest medication therapy management firm. A network of specially trained provider pharmacists offer fee based services ranging from Education & Monitoring to a Comprehensive Medication Review including Drug Therapy Problem identification and resolution as well as disease management services.
As partners, Tom Halterman and Patty Kumbera, brought their vision of improved pharmacist services in every community pharmacy to the Iowa healthcare marketplace in 1999. Now in 2005 their organization covers over one million lives across the United States.
To learn more about Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care visit www.getoutcomes.com.
Entrepreneurial Leadership Analysis:
1. What factors led to the identification of this opportunity?
In the February 2001 article by Morris et al, the framework of the entrepreneurial process offers seven examples of key decision variables or alternatives that come into play with the identification of an opportunity. The venture with Outcomes incorporates each of these variables. First, the changing demographics of the American population are leading to more medication use by the elderly, a key factor in the need for medication therapy management services. Through the Outcomes initiative the team of pharmacists themselves emerged as a new market segment in health care. Through careful evaluation and surveying the process needs where identified. New technologies were utilized through the internet based documentation system. There was an incongruity between what pharmacists were doing, filling prescriptions, and what pharmacists are trained to do, serve as medication experts. In the past two decades there have been significant regulatory changes from the advent of OBRA ’90 requiring the offer to counsel patients to the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act. Finally, there has been social change, patients are taking a more active role in their health care, and pharmacists are available to answer patient questions. Each of these factors played a role in the identification of the new opportunity for Medication Therapy Management Services in the marketplace.
2. What type of entrepreneurs are Tom Halterman and Patty Kumbera?
From his 2000 article in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, John Miner describes four distinct types of entrepreneurs – personal achievers, ‘super’ sales people, expert idea generators, and real managers. Each type of entrepreneur has a different focus, which should coincide with the type of venture. As a team, Tom and Patty have attributes of each type. Both have strong commitment to the venture, a characteristic of a personal achiever. One of Patty’s roles is that of sales, her success may be due to her capacity to understand others and empathize, a characteristic of a ‘super’ sales person. As CEO, Tom displays a desire to be a corporate leader, a characteristic of a real manager. Together they both have a desire to innovate and use the intelligence of pharmacists as a source of competitive advantage, both characteristics of expert idea generators. |
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